2022 hasn’t become the year we hoped it would be, at least not if we take the situation in Ukraine and the Russia invasion into consideration. A monster from the past has returned, and the fear of war has suddenly turned into a reality amongst children all across Europe. It is even sadder to know that most Russians never really wanted this war, and even less, they don’t really know what is going on due to the fact that Russian media is heavily filtered by the government. But, what can you do to bypass such regulations and filters? Is it legal to use VPN services in Russia? And if you do, will it help you gain access to blocked social media services such as Facebook and Twitter?
If you are reading this article in Russia, you are not alone looking for information like this. The number of search requests using the word VPN in Russia has increased with more than 1000% in March compared to the same time in February 2022. In the same period, people in Ukraine have also started to search for more information about VPN providers as they have seen a 600% increase in search requests related to VPN services in their country.
This isn’t the first time we have seen this happen. On August 12th in 2021 there were general elections in Zambia. On the actual election day, social media platforms such as WhatsApp, Twitter, and Facebook were blocked and they remained unavailable for a while. This caused an increase of more than 16,000% in search requests dealing with VPN services that would make the citizens able to bypass the regulations and gain access to all the popular social media sites and services.
We all know that gas is expensive, and for this reason, the leadership of Kazakhstan introduced a price cap on gas prices in 2021. But, in the start of January 2022, they decide to terminate the price cap. This led to riots in the streets, and as the country also hold 40% of the worlds uranium resources, the economy has actually been booming… for some! Instead of sharing the wealth with the people, the 160 richest people in Kazakhstan hold more than 55% of the countries wealth. All in all, this caused riots and led to an increase of 3400% in search requests related to VPN services in January 2022.
What’s up in Russia? Can I use a VPN in Russia in 2022?
What’s going on in Russia? Are they allowed to use VPN services? The answer to that question is yes. But, they are not allowed to access websites blocked by the government. So, you might be allowed to actually use a VPN, but you are not allowed to access Facebook if that service is blocked by the government.
Of course, the purpose of a VPN is to give access to blocked websites while hiding your activities to the authorities. As a result, if you use a serious VPN, you should easily be able to use Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other services, without being spied on by the authorities.
The Russian government understands that people use VPN services to avoid their filters are regulations. As a result, they work on introducing filters that will block traffic to certain websites, even though you use a VPN. We have seen the same take place in China earlier. As a result, several VPN providers are well prepared for such regulations, meaning that they already have a way around such filters and regulations.
But, once again, it is important to use VPN providers that will actually keep you safe and that will keep you private. Both SurfsharkVPN and ExpressVPN have said that the traffic amount from Russia has increased with nearly 1000% recently due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine (as Russians want to read the real news and get real information and not only the Russian filtered news). In other words, these are both great services that can help you stay safe while reading real news about the situation in Ukraine, and to use all your favorite social media services in 2022.
If you want to visit the SurfsharkVPN website, click the button above.
Click the button above to visit the ExpressVPN website.
Even if the situation in Ukraine might have a positive effect on the economy of the VPN providers, we truly hope that peace will come as quickly as possible and that a solution will be found that will solve the conflict. The best would be if Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy would come to an agreement and the situation would come to an end. A possible solution would be that revolts in Russia would cause the Putin government to see that the invasion of Ukraine has to come to an end. No matter what, our prayers are with the people of Ukraine, of Russia, and we do hope that a peaceful solution will come around as quickly as possible.
